Decelerating mechanism

ABSTRACT

A decelerating mechanism for use in a continuous mail sorting and postage imprinting system which automatically weighs and meters each piece of mail. The system is designed to rapidly handle a large quantity of mixed mail. Mixed mail is continuously and synchronously fed in seriatim along a continuous feed path. Unsealed envelopes have their flaps wetted and sealed. All the envelopes are stopped at a weighing station by the decelerating mechanism where they are weighed, and the postage corresponding to their particular weight is computed. The determined postage value is used to continuously reset a postage meter which imprints the required postage upon each envelope as it arrives at a metering station. The metering and weighing functions of the system are synchronized such that the postage meter will imprint the proper postage upon each piece of mail, despite the fact that several envelopes may be simultaneously in transit along the feed path. Overweight pieces of mail are rejected from the feed path prior to their reaching the postage meter station. Metered and overweight pieces of mail are separately stacked.

United States Patent [191 Sette et al.

[ DECELERATING MECHANISM [75] Inventors: Paul R. Sette, Hamden, Conn;

[73] Assignee:

[22] Filed:

Anthony Storace, Tarrytown, NY.

Pitney-Bowes, lnc., Stamford Conn.

June 5, 1974 [21] App]v No: 476,704

Primary Examiner-Allen N. Knowles Attorney, Agent, or Firm-William D. Soltow, Jr.; Albert W. Scribner; Robert S. Salzman [451 July 15, 1975 [57] ABSTRACT A decelerating mechanism for use in a continuous mail sorting and postage imprinting system which automatically weighs and meters each piece of mail. The system is designed to rapidly handle a large quantity of mixed mail. Mixed mail is continuously and synchronously fed in seriatim along a continuous feed path. Unsealed envelopes have their flaps wetted and sealed. All the envelopes are stopped at a weighing station by the decelerating mechanism where they are weighed. and the postage corresponding to their particular weight is computed. The determined postage value is used to continuously reset a postage meter which imprints the required postage upon each enve' lope as it arrives at a metering station. The metering and weighing functions of the system are synchronized such that the postage meter will imprint the proper postage upon each piece of mail, despite the fact that several envelopes may be simultaneously in transit along the feed path. Overweight pieces of mail are rejected from the feed path prior to their reaching the postage meter station. Metered and overweight pieces of mail are separately stacked.

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1. A decelerating mechanism for stopping moving pieces of of mail being ged through a mail handling system, comprising at least one pair of cooperatively acting, adjacently spaced fingers each having a curved mail contacting surface, said fingers being operative between an open and a closed position, each curved surface sloping inwardly toward the other curved surface when said fingers are in said closed position, in said closed position said curved surfaces converging to provide a progressively restrictive passageway for an incoming piece of mail, each of said mail contacting surfaces further including a plurality of saw-toothed projections for preventing an incoming piece of mail from backing out from between said fingers, biasing means acting upon said fingers for biasing said fingers toward each other so as to provide a spring-like holding resistance to an incoming piece of mail which tends to separate the fingers as said mail enters there between, and means operatively connected to said fingers to move them between said open and said closed positions.
 2. The decelerating mechanism of claim 1, wherein there are three individual pairs of fingers, each pair of fingers spaced one above the other to form a tier, and structurally connected to each other so as to act in concert with the other pairs of said tier.
 3. The decelerating mechanism of claim 1, wherein each finger of said pair is pivotably mounted at a mail incoming end, and has a stopping digit at a converging end, said digits of each pair of fingers interengaging with each other to provide a closed mail feeding passage when said fingers are in said closed position, and an open mail feeding passage when said fingers are in said open position. 